Intersection of Main and Canal Streets

Intersection of Main and Canal Streets. Natchez Trails. The Protection Steam Fire Company No. 3 built a grand firehouse in 1902 at the corner of Main and Canal streets (no longer standing). During the 1800s and early 1900s, volunteers provided fire protection in Natchez as in most American towns. Both black and white volunteers organized segregated fire companies that operated like fraternal organizations, and each company built its own distinct firehouse downtown. , Built in 1838, the Commercial Bank and Banker's House is a single building. The bank portion faces Main Street, and the house faces South Canal Street. The bank vaults are actually under the second-story bedroom of the Banker's House. The bank portion has served the city as a bank, post office, National Guard Armory, church, and entertainment facility. The building is a National Historic Landmark. , The Gaines Building (no longer standing) stood on the corner of Main and Canal streets. This engraving shows a mule-drawn trolley, used prior to electric trolleys. The building had a decorative pressed-metal front, like many of the fine commercial buildings constructed in Natchez during the cotton boom of the late 1800s. , The Lum Brothers sale barn for horses and mules (no longer standing) was on Main Street between Canal and Wall streets. The larger stockyards were located further south on Canal Street. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, livestock often arrived in town by rail and was herded through the city streets to sale barns and stockyards. , The Postlethwaite Building is a Federal-style commercial building from about 1820. The restored structure has served a wide variety of uses during its lifetime of almost two hundred years, including the dry cleaning business pictured above.